Microsoft is now the fifth biggest PC manufacturer in the US, according to new data from Gartner.

The software giant claimed 4.1% of the US PC market (in shipments) in the third quarter of 2018, according to preliminary results from the research firm. That puts it in fifth place behind HP, Dell, Lenovo and Apple.

Gartner said worldwide PC shipments totalled 67.2 million units in the third quarter, a 0.1% increase from the same quarter last year. The global market has shown modest stability for two consecutive quarters.

Europe, the Middle East and Africa (Emea), Asia/Pacific, and Japan experienced growth in the third quarter of 2018, while the US and Latin America declined.

“The PC market continued to be driven by steady corporate PC demand, which was driven by Windows 10 PC hardware upgrades,” Gartner said. “We expect the Windows 10 upgrade cycle to continue through to 2020 at which point the upgrade demand will diminish.”

Despite the third quarter typically showing strong consumer PC sales due to the back-to-school season, weakness in consumer PC demand continued, offsetting the strong sales in the business market.

Although the third-quarter results did not show any material impact, an Intel processor shortage could influence the PC market in the near term, with resultant price increases and changes to the vendor landscape, Gartner said.

“While this shortage will have some short-term impacts, Gartner does not see any lasting impact on overall PC demand. The current expectation is that the shortage will continue into 2019, but Intel will prioritise high-end CPUs as well as CPUs for business PCs.”

Lenovo secured the top spot in the worldwide PC market with growth of 10.7%, driven by regained traction in the commercial market and its joint venture with Fujitsu. HP fell to the second position, but recorded its fourth consecutive quarter of year-over-year shipment growth. HP showed strong desktop shipment growth, which indicated good demand among corporate buyers.

Dell experienced its tenth consecutive quarter of shipment growth, with growth of 5.3% in the third quarter of 2018.